Rome had many public outhouses around the city, but these were not very clean and sanitary, considering that they were public, and not cleaned.
At the time period in ancient Rome, they did not have any knowledge of the need to sanitize or the need to clean the waters, thus letting it spread and become more of a problem.
The used water was sent into the sewage system, and carried to the Tiber River, which the city of Rome is located on, and then passed through into the Mediterranean and out to the Atlantic Ocean.
Clean water was brought into Rome by aqueducts, from water sources such as rivers and seas nearby.
Eventually though, people started to get the germs and other viruses coming from people’s waste, thus causing outbreaks and sickness to many Romans.
If you somehow got waste or waste germs into your body, you are contaminated with bacteria from the digestive system, not meant to be ingested again.
Considering the technology of the time, they did not clean these sewers or the water, thus contaminating the sewer greatly. Also, this water ran through these dirty sewers, thus making the water even more contaminated, and then being put back into the cycle again, only to get more contaminated.
Many of the private wells connecting to the government run sewers were highly neglected, thus because they needed to be cleaned by hand. Remember- they did not have toilets that they could push a lever and would then be cleaned and emptied by itself. They would either have to take it all out and dump it into a sewer area nearby or have to scrub it down into the sewer. Many people dumped it out into the yards and onto the streets, causing the attraction of flies and dogs, thus easily spreading diseases and bacteria.
Present Day
In Clermont County, they are worried about a landfill, called the Cecos Landfill in Jackson Township near the Little Miami River, becoming too large and releasing toxins into the air, affecting people nearby.
All across America, many pollution is going on. Many factories are located right on big rivers. For the factory, this is good because of the easy transportation system. But they also use it to dump waste into the rivers, polluting the rivers and killing ecosystems.
According to the Toxics Action Center, in 2007 the United States disposed of 254 million tons of waste before recycling occurred.
As PLOS said, a non-profit publishing organization, throwing away food and produce is a great waste problem because of the energy used to produce it. It is estimated that 30%-50% of all food produced is thrown away. This is a great problem because of all the energy and resources used to produce all of that food, all of the materials that were thrown away to produce that food, and then the food it is just tossed out too. It is a huge waste. If we cut down on produce or ate what we bought, that would give people more energy, and not waste materials that otherwise would just get thrown into a landfill to erode and pollute.
As the Clean Air Council says, every year, Americans use about 1 billion shopping bags, creating about 300,000 tons of landfill waste. If we could find a way to recycle these bags, and manage their waste, we could keep 300,000 tons of waste out of landfills each year. This waste management would also help the environment, considering that plastic bags don’t biodegrade, or they don’t ever go away.
As the Clean Air Council says, about 2.6 billion holiday cards are sold each year. That is enough waste to fill a football field 10 stories high. If more people recycled, and we had better waste management, we could keep all of those cards out of landfills each year.
SOLUTIONS Ancient Rome
Rome did have sewer covers, or manholes, giving a pathway to the sewers. They could use these sewers to send workers or slaves into the sewers to clean the sewers or check them for any corroding or corruption going on.
Ancient Rome had many smart citizens and workers at the time. They just had no idea that they should clean the waters or what to do it with. They could have put some of these smart citizens to work and try to get them to come up with a chemical process to clean the water. Or before the sewer water was dumped into the Tiber River they could have built a cleaning plant that could have staffed slaves and unemployed citizens to go through and clean out the water.
Present Day
The American Rivers organization is working to pass an act, or the Clean Waters Act. This would benefit and advance funding for green infrastructure and help improve water efficiency.
To limit waste in landfills and polluting our rivers and ecosystems, there now is recycling, where some waste is reused, keeping tons of trash out of landfills.
CITATIONS Carr, Karen (PhD). Kidipede - History for Kids. 2012. Ancient Roman Sewage
Gigante, Linda. "Death and Disease in Ancient Rome."Death and Disease in Ancient Rome n.pag.Associate Professor of History at the University of Louisville. Web. 14 Jan 2013. <http://www.innominatesociety.com/Articles/Death and Disease in Ancient Rome.htm>.
cbannon@indiana.edu Cynthia J. Bannon Adjunct Associate Professor AREAS OF RESEARCH: Roman Law; Roman History
sedlak@ce.berkeley David L. Sedlak Professor at the University of California, Berkeley CO-DIRECTOR OF BERKELEY WATER CENTER DIRECTOR OF INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
E-MAILS Dear Dr. Bannon,
I am a seventh grade student at Nagel Middle School in Cincinnati, OH. Currently in our Social Studies class, we are studying problems from ancient Rome. My topic is waste management in ancient Rome. I saw your background information along with your contact information at indiana.edu. I was wondering if you could answer some questions for me about ancient Rome.
1. When ancient Rome disposed of their sewage, after they dumped it into the Tiber River, where did it then flow after that? Did it flow out into the Mediterranean Sea, or did it sink to the bottom of the Tiber River?
2. The sewage problems were spreading many diseases along with bacteria. How great was this outbreak of disease? How hostile was the bacteria if you ingested it?
3. In ancient Rome, they had many public restrooms. I was informed that these restrooms were more out in the open, allowing many diseases to spread. What were ways that using the technology of the time, they could have kept these restrooms more sanitized?
Thank you so much for your time!
Sincerely,
Clay S. --REPLY--
Dear Clay,
Here are some resources that should answer your questions:
Helen King, Greek and Roman Medicine (available via Amazon)
We don’t have specific evidence about bacteria—I’m not sure the Romans understood disease in this way. The Helen King book should give you some Roman descriptions or reactions to disease.
You can also consult the writings of Celsus or Galen.
FINAL PROJECT:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1a4XA24xicSgSYIZidmTzNkSGeklXCHws5zH_V0dgLIM/pub?start=true&loop=false&delayms=5000
PROBLEMS
Ancient Rome
- Rome had many public outhouses around the city, but these were not very clean and sanitary, considering that they were public, and not cleaned.
- At the time period in ancient Rome, they did not have any knowledge of the need to sanitize or the need to clean the waters, thus letting it spread and become more of a problem.
- The used water was sent into the sewage system, and carried to the Tiber River, which the city of Rome is located on, and then passed through into the Mediterranean and out to the Atlantic Ocean.
- Clean water was brought into Rome by aqueducts, from water sources such as rivers and seas nearby.
- Eventually though, people started to get the germs and other viruses coming from people’s waste, thus causing outbreaks and sickness to many Romans.
- If you somehow got waste or waste germs into your body, you are contaminated with bacteria from the digestive system, not meant to be ingested again.
- Considering the technology of the time, they did not clean these sewers or the water, thus contaminating the sewer greatly. Also, this water ran through these dirty sewers, thus making the water even more contaminated, and then being put back into the cycle again, only to get more contaminated.
- Many of the private wells connecting to the government run sewers were highly neglected, thus because they needed to be cleaned by hand. Remember- they did not have toilets that they could push a lever and would then be cleaned and emptied by itself. They would either have to take it all out and dump it into a sewer area nearby or have to scrub it down into the sewer. Many people dumped it out into the yards and onto the streets, causing the attraction of flies and dogs, thus easily spreading diseases and bacteria.
Present DaySOLUTIONS
Ancient Rome
Present Day
CITATIONS
Carr, Karen (PhD).
Kidipede - History for Kids. 2012.
Ancient Roman Sewage
Gigante, Linda. "Death and Disease in Ancient Rome."Death and Disease in Ancient Rome n.pag.Associate Professor of History at the University of Louisville. Web. 14 Jan 2013. <http://www.innominatesociety.com/Articles/Death and Disease in Ancient Rome.htm>.
Johnston, John. "Toxic Waste Dump has Clermont County Worried About Leakage."Cincinnati.com. (2011): n. page. Web. 15 Jan. 2013. <http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20111126/NEWS01/111270315/Toxic-waste-dump-has-Clermont-County-worried-about-leakage>.
American Rivers, . "How do we Manage Water Pollution." AmericanRivers.org. (2013): n. page. Web. 15 Jan. 2013. <http://www.americanrivers.org/initiatives/pollution/>.
CONTACTS
charlacabe@rumpke.com
Charla Cabe
RUMPKE HUMAN RESOURCES
cbannon@indiana.edu
Cynthia J. Bannon
Adjunct Associate Professor
AREAS OF RESEARCH: Roman Law; Roman History
sedlak@ce.berkeley
David L. Sedlak
Professor at the University of California, Berkeley
CO-DIRECTOR OF BERKELEY WATER CENTER
DIRECTOR OF INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
E-MAILS
Dear Dr. Bannon,
I am a seventh grade student at Nagel Middle School in Cincinnati, OH. Currently in our Social Studies class, we are studying problems from ancient Rome. My topic is waste management in ancient Rome. I saw your background information along with your contact information at indiana.edu. I was wondering if you could answer some questions for me about ancient Rome.
1. When ancient Rome disposed of their sewage, after they dumped it into the Tiber River, where did it then flow after that? Did it flow out into the Mediterranean Sea, or did it sink to the bottom of the Tiber River?
2. The sewage problems were spreading many diseases along with bacteria. How great was this outbreak of disease? How hostile was the bacteria if you ingested it?
3. In ancient Rome, they had many public restrooms. I was informed that these restrooms were more out in the open, allowing many diseases to spread. What were ways that using the technology of the time, they could have kept these restrooms more sanitized?
Thank you so much for your time!
Sincerely,
Clay S.
--REPLY--
Dear Clay,
Here are some resources that should answer your questions:
On the city of Rome’s sewer, cloaca maxima,
http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/waters/Journal4Hopkins.pdf
http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Forum/resources/Richardson/Cloaca_Maxima
http://classicalstudies.duke.edu/uploads/assets/08_CloacaMaxima.pdf
http://www.waterhistory.org/histories/rome/
On medicine and public health
http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/romanpublichealth.htm
Helen King, Greek and Roman Medicine (available via Amazon)
We don’t have specific evidence about bacteria—I’m not sure the Romans understood disease in this way. The Helen King book should give you some Roman descriptions or reactions to disease.
You can also consult the writings of Celsus or Galen.
Celsus you can access through a website called Lacus Curtius, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Medicina.html
Galen is available on the Classics Internet Archive: http://classics.mit.edu/Galen/natfac.html
Good luck with your project!
cjb
-- Cynthia J. Bannon
Associate Professor and
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of Classical Studies
Indiana University, Bloomington
IMAGES